


Name

by 1DE3shipper



Series: 100 Writing Prompts [11]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Middle School, Bullying, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Note-passing, slight racism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-03
Updated: 2014-03-03
Packaged: 2018-01-14 11:39:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1265155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1DE3shipper/pseuds/1DE3shipper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn finally meets someone who doesn't make fun of his name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Name

Zayn hated his name. It was different, special, and no one else understood it. From the time he started school, he had to put up with comments, many unpleasant, from other students and even some teachers. By the time he reached middle school, he was fed up. 

He had asked his parents on many occasions if he could get it changed, but their response was always something along the lines of, "your name is unique. It's what makes you you and you should just embrace it." Typical parent answer.

For this reason, along the fact that he was naturally quiet, Zayn often kept to himself and tended to head the other way when he encountered other people. He had been able to make a few friends, but they weren't particularly close and he rarely actually did anything with them. Interacting with others just wasn't his thing.

The back corner of a classroom is a good place to not get noticed, and no one knew that better than Zayn, but apparently he wasn't the only one to realize this, because he walked into his history class one day to see someone sitting in the usually vacant seat next to him.

"Is this your seat?" The boy asked. 

"Um, no," Zayn answered quietly, trying to avoid conversation as he took his usual seat.

"I'm Liam," he tried again. "What's your name?"

Zayn just shrugged. He really didn't want to have to go through this again. He would say his name and Liam would ask his to repeat it and ask what kind of name is that and Zayn wasn't in the mood to answer that.

"You have a name, yeah?" The new boy seemed puzzled.

"Course."

"Then what is it?"

Zayn hesitated. "It's... Zayn," he eventually gave in and braces himself for the laughter that was sure to follow. But it never came. When he looked over at Liam, he seemed to be smiling. In a good way.

"Zayn," he tested the sound. "That's a cool name, very unique. Do you know what it means?"

"Umm... It's Arabic for beautiful, I think." 

"Well," Liam said, quieter now, "it certainly fits."

Zayn smiled slightly and felt a blush creep to his cheeks. "Thanks."

Just then, the teacher called for attention at the front of the class, causing Zayn to turn away from the boy next to him, who, if Zayn was perfectly honest, wasn't too bad looking either. He felt a bump against his elbow and Liam gave him a smile and handed him a note scrawled on a corner of notebook paper.

_When's your lunch?_

Zayn responded under the first note, _5th... You?_ before passing it back to the original writer and waiting for the response. He shouldn't feel as nervous as he does, considering they had met maybe five minutes prior.

_5th... Mind sitting with me? No friends yet :(_

_that sounds perfect... no friends for me either... meet me by the drinking fountains outside the cafeteria?_

Not a minute later, Liam slipped him the paper again. _Its a date... See you then, beautiful ;)_

Zayn was probably blushing again as he looked at Liam through his eyelashes but Liam just winked in response and turned back to face the screen, which had been displaying PowerPoint that Zayn hadn't seen a word of. He was too distracted by his date.

Maybe Zayn wasn't such a terrible name after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews please? I'll only continue it if you guys tell me to!


End file.
